Deadline looms for Rayney acquittal appeal

Thursday is the deadline for an appeal to be lodged against the acquittal of Lloyd Rayney in the murder of his estranged wife, Corryn.

Mr Rayney was acquitted this month after a highly publicised three-month trial and a five-year ordeal to prove his innocence.

Corryn Rayney, a former registrar at the Supreme Court of Western Australia and mother of two, disappeared after her weekly dance class on August 7, 2007.

Former Northern Territory chief justice Brian Martin presided over the case, which was dubbed the "trial of the decade".

He found that Ms Rayney was essentially a victim of a random attack outside her home and was buried head-first in a grave at Kings Park before her car was dumped nearby.

Mr Rayney has kept a low profile since his acquittal but told reporters on the day he was found not guilty that it was a "terrible tragedy" his daughters still did not know who killed their mother.

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Many in the legal profession have publicly said a retrial is unlikely because, for an appeal to be successful, lawyers must find a misapplication of legal principles.

Appeals must be lodged within 21 days after a verdict, meaning Thursday is the deadline.

It also seems unlikely that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) would want to go through another expensive trial without more certainty of success.

Mr Rayney's was WA's most expensive trial and required its judge and prosecutor to be flown in from interstate to avoid bias because the Rayneys are well known in Perth's legal community.

Mr Rayney may also push ahead with a defamation lawsuit against WA Police after the then head of the major crime squad, Detective Senior Sergeant Jack Lee, told journalists shortly after Ms Rayney's death that her estranged husband was the "prime" and "only" suspect in her murder.

However, Mr Rayney also faces other, perhaps more pressing, issues.

His ability to practise as a lawyer remains in doubt after Justice Martin found he had engaged in "discreditable conduct" by lying to a magistrate, swearing a false affidavit and arranging a phone tap to monitor his wife's calls.

Both the Legal Practice Board and Barristers' Board are reviewing Mr Rayney's privilege to practise law.

The WA Bar Association, of which Mr Rayney is a member, could strip him of his membership but cannot prevent him from practising as a barrister.

Lawyer Richard Lawson, who had worked with Mr Rayney for the DPP, has already offered him two clients to represent in court if he's able to return to the bar.